MALVERN - It’s been a long time coming, but the Charles E. and Florence M. Lakin Community Center is officially open for business.

Two events - the annual Mills County 4-H Awards Program on Oct. 29 and a forum hosted by Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Bill Northey on Monday evening - have given the public its first opportunities to see the $2.75 million facility in person.

The Wolverines, making their first state tournament appearance, opened their quarterfinal match against top ranked, two-time defending state champion Janesville, were jittery, coach Connie Blank said.

“We finally got our bearings and settled down after that first set and started improving and by the third set, we played much better,” Blank said. “I think we had to get some nerves out. Janesville is just a very, very good team.”

CEDAR FALLS - Remsen St. Mary’s seemed to have all the answers and all Fremont-Mills had was questions.

The undefeated Hawks answered the Knights’ offense with a stingy defense that pitched a first half shutout and then and had all the right calls offensively to sprint out to a 30-0 lead en route to a 51-6 victory over the Knights in the Eight-man semifinals at the UNI Dome in Cedar Falls Thursday.

For a few brief seconds, Fremont-Mills was in danger of its third straight failure on fourth down in as many first half possessions.

Then they weren’t.

Trailing 3-0 midway through the second quarter, quarterback Mason Vanatta scrambled to his right on a fourth-and-8 at the 40 yard line and found Connor Alley for a 22-yard gain. On the very next play the Knights found the endzone and all the momentum they would need in a dominating 35-9 victory over previously unbeaten Sidney in the Eight-man quarterfinals Friday.

TABOR - East Mills volleyball advanced to state for the first time in school history with a 25-16, 25-14, 25-19 sweep of Essex in the Class1A, Region 2 finals last Tuesday in Tabor.

“We told them, ‘you’ve got to communicate every play,’” East Mills head coach Connie Viner-Blank said. “They did. This was the cherry on the top. It’s excellent timing to be playing our best volleyball right now. The whole team played so great together. Tonight was electric.”